Buried alive

He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness (Colossians 1:13).

One of the most dangerous jobs in the world is the occupation of miner. These men and women travel hundreds of feet under the earth to extract valuable minerals for our use. The dangers are many—death by fire when a pocket of methane gas explodes, death by black lung disease or cancer from breathing tainted air, death by asphyxiation when trapped by a cave-in.

This last form of death seems to me to be the most horrifying. An unexpected tragedy cuts you off from light, from fresh air, from any contact with loved ones on the surface. Imagine being trapped in the darkness, with uncountable tons of rock and earth between you and freedom. Isolated in the dark, each breath increasingly hard to draw. A terrible way to face the end of life.

In a sense, this is what sin does to us. We are buried by our guilt—guilt over all the things we have done to hurt the people that we love. We are buried by our regrets—regrets over all the times we could have shown our love to someone precious to us, but we let the moment slip away unused. We are buried by the consequences of our actions—a huge mountain of debt arising from foolish spending, or an addiction to something that we just cannot shake. Our sins bury us—and with each passing year, the enormity of our foolish behavior buries us deeper and deeper.

A miner trapped underground has only one hope—that rescuers will find him before air and life run out. What a precious moment it is when the sound of tapping is heard, when a ray of light breaks through the darkness, when life-giving air caresses a dirt-smeared cheek! This is the joy we feel when we are rescued from dying trapped in the darkness of our sins. We are not alone anymore. We are not trapped in the dark anymore. God has sent His Son Jesus to rescue us. He has broken His way in through our sins. He has brought us the light of God and the breath of life. He has opened a path for us to leave the place of death and join our loved ones in the warmth of eternal light.

If you feel as if your mistakes have left you buried alone in a terrible dark place, don’t give up—reach out your trembling fingers to Jesus, and He will pull you free.